When can I be with you?
by OhGodTheHorror
Summary: Can a person ever be too mad? What happened to hatter while Alice was away? R&R peoples!


Hi hiiiiii!!! It's me again and boy do I have a story for you nyahahahhaaa... It's quite different to my other one but I hope you like it nonetheless!

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**When can I be with you?**

Alice hadn't been back to Underland in almost 6 years, but the years away had made her wiser; a tight fisted hand to the grindstone and she had grown into a wealthy businesswoman with an ice cold exterior. Alice hadn't even meant to return back to Underland, but she had gone for a walk after an intense business meeting at her partner's home. The meeting hadn't resolved the matter, but it had given Alice enough of a headache to wish to be in the green forest that she had once loved so much.

The truth was that Alice still loved the forest, and the trees and the animals too, but being a woman in a business was a hard job and expectations were ridiculous. To meet the standards of the men in her company she had to become what she despised the most... Older.

She came across the hole by accident again and stood near the rim, looking down and wondering how it had not been noticed by anyone else. Nonetheless she jumped down, knowing that luck would keep her from falling to her death. Just as she had expected, objects had somehow been placed to cushion her fall, as if knowing that she was returning. Taking the key and drinking the liquid she unlocked the door and was surprised by the change in Underland.

The trees seemed to have lost some of their lustre through the years and the sky seemed to have turned a permanent grey. There were no creatures and friends to greet her at the door as before and Alice couldn't help but wonder what had happened in the years that she had been gone.

Walking further on into the forest she noted a lone table with no occupants.

"Hello?" She called out, wiping the dust from a cup in both confusion and dismay.

The hatter would have never let his tea party get to such a state unless- Alice's hands pressed themselves against her mouth, praying that what she feared was not true. He couldn't be dead, not yet.

She was about to continue forward when she heard a growling noise. Alice turned, only to see the March Hare glaring at her, a butter knife in his hand as it trembled madly.

"Hare, do you not remember me?" She asked, pointing to her face in desperation. There was an odd look in his eyes, almost as if he were mad enough to be sane. "It's me, Alice" she tried again, taking a step forward as the hare's eyes widened in recognition before sagging sadly.

"Where have you been Alice? Underland has changed..." He said solemnly and threw the knife as far as his weak arms could manage.

"Where's the hatter and the dormouse?" Alice asked, hoping to alleviate her fears. Seeing the hare's reaction to the hatter's name however didn't help at all.

"The White Queen has done her best but... But after the terrible accident 3 years ago, the Hatter just... Hasn't been the same." The hare said solemnly, turning away from Alice as he lifted an empty cup into the air before drinking the invisible liquid and ignoring her.

Alice wouldn't let the matter go however and grabbed the hare's collar, spinning him around as a worried expression covered her features. "What happened to him hare?" She asked, not taking his silence for an answer but keeping patient until he opened his mouth and began to explain the tragic tale.

"He'd been waiting for you for so long, he wouldn't drink his tea, he rarely slept and kept all of us out. He was this strange person, so normal and... Sane. But that wasn't really true because three years of sitting and waiting had changed him more than we had known. We only realised how bad it was when he said that he would go and get you himself." He began but Alice interjected,

"But he can't leave Underland, it's the rule!" She cried and the hare merely nodded in agreement,

"But he tried. He had been gone for a week and we finally found him sitting alone beside the hole."

"What was he doing?"

"Just sitting there I guess, but he hasn't been the same ever since. I think he's gone mad..."

"But how can a mad person go mad?" she asked but the hare refused to answer, removing himself from her grasp and hopping off into the trees. Alice cautiously followed him until they reached the White Queens castle. The queen however did not show herself as Alice had thought she would and so Alice continued to follow the hare until she reached a secluded door in the corner of the palace. The hare didn't enter but stood still, waiting for Alice to enter first before shutting the door when she was inside and keeping watch. She spun around at tried to open the door but it was locked from the other side which confused Alice.

What were they trying to keep in?

She was about to bang on the door for help when a voice permeated through the room.

"Can we help you miss?" Alice turned to see two men draped in white and carrying clipboards.

"Where am I and who are you?" She said, feeling that the twin boys were familiar but not knowing why because she had never met two tall twins in Underland before.

"I'm guessing you have been sent here to see our patient, come this way please" One of them instructed before leading Alice to a door with a large 'H' on it.

Alice entered the room, not knowing what to expect. Seeing the hatter had brought back a flood of memories but she had to remember that he was not who he once was. The two kind doctors that had shown her in walked over to the hatter who was lying on what looked like a normal bed with leather straps on each side.

Alice cringed, knowing what the binds were used for but ignored it to look back at the hatter whose hair had become limp and matted while his eyes had grown permanently dark. Apparently this was normal for the doctors to witness as they had already begun pulling out their clipboards and making small notes as the hatter stared up at nothing.

"I... I just want to make hats" he whispered but the cuts on his wrists and body made his doctors wary of letting him near scissors and they shook their head in unison. After muttering about pink bows for a few more minutes he turned to Alice, finally noticing her but only staring, as if he were looking at her but through her all the same.

"Oh hatter, what happened?" Alice said but the hatter only fell into a fit of silent giggles.

"Why is a raven like a writing desk?" he asked, turning away from Alice with a serious expression on his face. Alice did not know the answer so she stayed silent. The hatter didn't mind though, he couldn't.

"I know why Alice, I do I do" he began to chant though his expression remained serious. Alice took a tentative step towards him and couldn't help but wonder if he was recovering now that she had returned.

"Why?" she whispered, more to a different question altogether.

"Did you know Alice that it takes a truly mad person to know why a raven is like a writing desk? And I have figured it out I have, while I was... While I was.." but the hatter didn't go on, his eyes darkening before he stood up and ran towards Alice, his face an inch from hers as he felt her breath upon his smirking lips.

"I KNOW WHY ALICE! DO YOU?!" he laughed before the doctors rushed towards him and restrained him to the bed while he screamed and strained against the leather bindings to no avail.

"TELL ME ALICE, DO YOU WANT TO KNOW? Do you?" his voice began to lower when he found that the restraints kept him there. Alice watched in both horror and guilt as he giggled and repeated the question to himself."Let me tell you then, since you asked so nicely" he said before whispering nothing into the air and laughing again.

"You see Alice, it's simple really... Why can't you see?" He said before his expression saddened. "If you'd stayed I could have shown you..." he whispered before breaking down into tears.

Alice by now was Close to crying, wishing only to have her friend the hatter back. She didn't know what to do in this situation and it wasn't what she had felt while in her world. Underland had always made her feel as if she couldn't control her life or the lives around her.

Hating that she was so helpless she moved towards him and pressed her hands against his temples gently, watching the hatter's face scrunch up, as if looking for something that had been there before. Without thinking twice Alice bent forward and pressed her soft lips to the hatter's chapped pair. There was no further movement nor was anything needed. It was Alice's last plea for her friend; to find him within himself. Eventually she moved back, breaking the kiss before whispering,

"Wake up hatter..."

Hatter blinked once, then twice and Alice began to smile. She had done it, he was-

"Alice that's not right, the dormouse will run away again if you continue to talk about cats" the hatter burst into another round of giggles, trying to move his hands though to no avail. Alice's face crumpled as unshed tears began to form, threatening to spill.

She couldn't do it, she couldn't save her friend and Alice could only blame her selfishness for not returning earlier to see him. Turning around, she finally let a single tear fall as she began to walk away.

"Alice?" the hatter called, stopping her in her tracks at the door as her hand moved towards the doorframe for support. She just couldn't bear to look at him again nor let him see her tears, he didn't mind though, he never did.

"Why is a raven like a writing desk?" he asked, his voice wavering and so vulnerable that he seemed more like a child then a man. Alice's hand clenched around the doorframe but still she didn't turn around.

"It isn't... A raven could never be like a writing desk..." she bit out, the pain in her voice clear as the hatter mutter a quick,

"oh..." it was only seconds before he replied again.

"Alice?" he called,

"Yes hatter?"

"Will you come back again?"

"Don't worry hatter, I'll be here tomorrow" she said before running out of the room and as far from Underland as possible.

Alice never did return...

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R&R peoples... I like critique because it tells me how much I suck haha

Thankyou

xox tartar


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